


Pick You Up

by ioucos



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 03:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12762033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ioucos/pseuds/ioucos
Summary: In which Ursula ruminates upon past mistakes, and Akko is Akko.





	Pick You Up

**Author's Note:**

> So, I watched through LWA for the first time, and goddammit are Ursula and Akko adorable. Thus, I proceed to express this love in the only way I’m actually capable of doing: (quasi-)angst.

Ursula Callistis, perhaps more commonly known these days as Chariot du Nord, stared blankly out of the massive window of her room’s second floor, the stars glittering in the sky beyond. She held her glasses in her hands, idly fiddling with them as a dull look set into her eyes.

Even now, months after the end of the missile crisis, she _honestly_ didn’t know how anyone in Luna Nova could stand her at all.

She had lied to Akko even when she knew the girl’s greatest dream was to meet Shiny Chariot.

She had stolen Croix’s dream.

She had stolen Akko’s _magic_.

And yet, people still talked to her — cordially, even. Ursula was confused, perhaps a little sick to her stomach. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when this wasn’t a constant, which made her even sicker. All she had ever wanted was to make people happy. The ex-performer wrapped her arms around herself, unwilling to avert her eyes from the window, even for just a moment. She didn’t deserve any of Akko’s love, nor that of any of her friends. All she had ever _done_ was steal dreams and ruin lives. Croix, Akko, even _Diana_ , as she heard it. She was a thief. And a liar, too.

Even when her favorite student — probably even her favorite _person_ — wanted nothing more than to meet her, Ursula could not even have the simple common decency to tell the girl her actual name. She had to be prompted by a threat to Akko’s life for the secret to be revealed. There was no doubt about it, really. Ursula Callistis, Chariot du Nord — whoever she actually was — was a coward. A lying, stealing coward.

Visibly shaking, Ursula finally allowed herself to close her eyes. She just stood there, self- _loathing_ flowing through her mind like the unceasing force of a river current. The witch let that current be, unchecked, silently standing before her window, and it showed, manifesting physically in tears brimming in her eyes.

She didn’t understand. How could Akko and the others _possibly_ forgive her? What had she _done_ that made them like her so?

She didn’t know. Ursula truly had no idea. Thus, she was left, sobbing, just before the window to the glowing cosmos beyond. She didn’t dare consider what lie just beyond that glass gateway, just within her reach. Instead, she collapsed in on herself, shrinking away from the world for just a few seconds. Until a loud noise startled her out of it, at least. That of a fist banging on her door, and a voice.

“Ursula-sensei? I’m here to work on my reconstruction magic with you, like you said!”

Ursula blinked. Then, her eyes grew wide. Panicked, she scrubbed at her face, hiding away the tear tracks and absolutely disgusting snot as best she could with her sleeve. Just as quickly, she slid her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. Taking a deep breath, Ursula stared into the eyes of Alcor — was that _concern_ she saw there, or was she just imagining it — before nodding to no-one in particular. Ursula stepped over to the door, creaking it open ever-so-slowly.

“I’m so s-sorry, Akko. I got a bit... um, distracted.”

Akko smiled back at the professor, as hopeful and joyous as ever. Ursula made a weak attempt back. Akko smiled even brighter in response, and stepped into the room without a drop of reservation, as she had perhaps hundreds of times before, at that point. Cognizant of the remnants of uncontrollable past sorrows on her face yet still, Ursula turned away, muttering a flimsy excuse of making some tea for the two of them beforehand. She could already feel her face burning up, and this panicked her even further. The professor busied herself for several minutes whilst Akko just sort of wandered around, eventually stopping to stroke Alcor. When the tea was brewed, the two sat down at the nearby table, idly sipping the stuff. Taking a deep breath to center herself beforehand, Ursula cleared her throat.

“S-so. About restoration mag—“

“Sensei, are you okay?”

Ursula blinked, trying not to meet Akko’s eyes. All she saw there was concern.

“Huh? Of course I am.”

She paused.

“Why?”

“It’s just... you look like you’ve been crying, and maybe there’s something I can do to help?”

Ursula nearly spat out her tea. _Oh._ That young witch was far more observant than she gave her credit for. Spluttering, the teacher tried to reassure her pupil, wiping at her own face intensely with a sleeve.

“I-I’m fine, I assure you! There’s nothing...”

Trailing off, the professor stared intently into her tea. She froze when Akko gently laid a hand upon hers.

“Sensei,” she began, quietly. “What’s wrong?”

Dozens of curses swam through her mind in that single moment as Akko dispelled her illusionary defense. Panic dropped into a sort of low, all-consuming dread. She stared at the wall, silently. Akko, however, squeezed Ursula’s hand without a word. Then, sucking in one last breath, Ursula half-whispered a seemingly-random question.

“Why do you still call me Ursula, Akko? Aren’t I—I thought meeting Chariot was your... dream.”

Akko frowned.

“Yeah. But when I realized you were Chariot for real, I knew I just wouldn’t.”

Ursula rose an eyebrow.

“Huh?”

Akko looked away, a tad embarrassedly. She fidgeted in her chair, trying to find the proper words.

“It’s... um... it’s sort of that I guess I already _knew_ you, sensei, and I wanted you to know that I don’t just see you as an... idol, I guess. Um. You’re not _just_ Shiny Chariot, the stage performer that inspires everyone. You’re also Professor Ursula. You helped me get through the last school year! I don’t know what I would’ve done without you, sensei.”

With a blink, Akko glanced up to see a sad smile splayed across Ursula’s features. The professor chuckled weakly with the continued eye contact, glancing away.

“Akko,” she began, voice shaking just a little. “How much does this have to do with not wanting to remember that I took your magic?”

There.

She said it.

What was _actually_ on her mind. Ursula squeezed her eyes shut as hard as she could, hands curling up into anticipatory fists. She mentioned this all the time. Akko was certainly, without a doubt, one hundred percent getting tired of it, she thought. And that she still said it anyways made Ursula even more horrid in her own head.

But then, she gleaned something that confused her immensely.

Laughter.

Slowly, the professor’s eyes blinked open. Akko was lightly smiling, hands placed carefully atop Ursula’s own. The red of Akko’s eyes glinted in the moonlight, cast forth from the professor’s second-floor window.

“Sensei, did I forget to tell you?”

...Huh?

“...Huh?”

Akko stared at Ursula confusedly.

“I... guess I forgot. Please don’t be mad!”

“Akko... what is it?”

Gesturing vaguely towards the sky, a slightly red-faced Akko replied.

“Okay, _so_. Remember when went and hid after I found out you were Chariot and Diana came to talk to you?”

Ursula visibly grimaced.

“...Yes?”

"Well, she told me everything you said about what happened. Including that you didn’t know Croix-sensei was manipulating you into using the, um... dream stuff... without you knowing.”

Tilting her head slightly, the professor raised an eyebrow.

“Alright... so?”

There was a brief silence devoid of spoken words. Akko looked incredulously at her teacher all the while.

“So it’s not your fault!”

Akko shot out of her chair, Ursula nearly jumping out of her skin at the sudden moment. The girl marched over to Ursula’s side of the table, and wrapped her arms around the redhead.

“You don’t have to blame yourself, sensei. It’s not your fault.”

A thousand thoughts raced through the ex-performer’s head at that very moment, keeping her body still with tension. But only three words passed from her lips.

“I’m so sorry.”

Akko’s hug grew tighter, and Ursula leaned in, still tense.

“Whatever for, sensei? It’s not your fault,” she repeated, confident on the matter. “It’s not your fault.”

Something in Ursula snapped at that very moment, and she began sobbing, jumbled half-formed thoughts dribbling out of her mouth — incoherent fragments — as she cried into Akko. The student just squeezed a little tighter, a sad smile on her face. One single coherent thought raced through Ursula’s might, amongst all of the broken and incoherent ones.

She still blamed herself.

Even despite the fact that there was nothing she could _do_ about it — for how could she have known what Croix was planning? She had been used like a tool, and left on the wayside when she could no longer efficiently perform the tasks she once had. Ursula sobbed even harder. Years of previously-unvoiced despair and loneliness and regret poured out into the world. Akko gently rubbed the professor’s back. It was this particular contact that startled Ursula into remembrance. She abruptly, albeit gently, pushed away from Akko. The girl was equal parts concerned and confused.

“I-I’m sorry... this isn’t v-very professio...”

That was all it took to make Akko hug her again, this time more tightly.

“Don’t worry about that, sensei,” she reassured a mildly dumbstruck Ursula. “It’s okay. Just let it all out.”

Akko’s arms around her all the while, sparkling tears rolled down the professor’s face. She was silent, however. After several seconds, Ursula finally reciprocated the hug, burying herself in the welcoming grasp of her student.

“I—“ she began, slow and uncertain. Ursula let out a sigh of exhaustion, leaning limply into Akko.

“Thank you, Akko.”

_Thank you for being here for me._

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed!
> 
> i wanted to at least try to contribute to this whole shebang (read: fandom) even if i'm terrible at writing fanfiction, 'cause it's just SO good. thus, mama bear being comforted by her cub. or something. i mean, you can literally see me just dumbly fuckin repeating "i love ursula and akko" on twitter when i was reacting to watching this show for the first time hah. speaking of which, title comes from stick together by elias naslin. good amvs make for writing fuel make for a semi-functional story.
> 
> but, more or less, this came about from me writing for just a few minutes every morning, and piecing it together, so i'd imagine there are minor mood-tone inconsistencies, but what can i do (forgive me for any mistakes please). you can also tell its been a week since the whole "huhAA proper capitalization" dealie i was doing in the AN at the top has devolved into this due to exhaustion lmao. irregardless, once again, hope you enjoyed, don't mind me, and have an awesome day!


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